The Covenant-class Consular Ship is built with diplomatic and first
contact (after initial contact by the Scout Service and the diplomats
enter the picture) missions in mind. The ships are used in time of peace
as well as during war to negotiate treaties so they may seem a little
heavily armed for a diplomatic ship. The turrets are hidden as pop-up
weapons to give the outward appearance of peaceful intent when it
applies, but the government has encountered in the past cultures that
value an open display of strength in order to prove the ambassador’s
position as negotiator. On two occasions it was necessary for the ship
to defend itself when negotiations took a turn for the worse.

The ambassador has two staterooms for him/herself and has a staff
including two attached members of Naval Intelligence whose duties will
include gathering information from less conventional sources if possible
during the diplomatic mission.

The procedure for entering a system on a typical diplomatic contact
varies between peacetime and war, but basic SOP is to launch two of the
Sabrecats as soon as the ship enters the system to act as pickets as the
ship travels towards the world. The Herald courier is dispatched with
the security team, Protocol Officer, and Head of Security to establish
contact, set up security, and establish the protocols for the visit
between the two cultures well before the consular ship arrives. The
security team consists of one of the two squads of Marines assigned to
the ship, plus a crew for the Grav Carrier and armored grav sled “limo”
which will pick up the Imperial Envoy when the consular ship lands a
couple of days later.